LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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BliAHAM LipLti, 

BEFORE THE 

((yACK [[OWINGJSSOCIATION, 

BY THE 

REV. WM. L. PENNY, 




NYACK, N. Y. 

I'UBLISHED BY 

WM. H. MYERS. 






■*• P * IiMOWOlM ■* 



BEFORE THE 



NYACK ROWItiG ASSOCIATION, 

BY THE 

REV. WK L. PENNY, 

II _ . 

OF NYACK, N. Y, y<^^'^JllS^' 









PUBLISHED BY 

WM. H. MYERS, 

BY PERMISSION. 
'•Copyright, 1886. by W. H. Myers." 






INTRODUCTORY 



This book is published and sold for the purpose of 
raising funds to complete the erection of a church for the 
Colored People of Nyack, N. Y. 

We have been diligently trying for the past year to 
raise money for this purpose, and have endeavored to 
leave no stone unturned. Now we come to you in the 
form of this little book, it will cost you but a trifle, but 
that trivial amount will be a contribution to a good 
cause, besides you will have the prayers of a grateful 
people. 

The price of this little book is TEN CENTS. Bin- 
one, and get your friends to buy one. Remember that : 
'• He tliat. giveth to the Poor, lendetli to the Lonl.''' 
Yours truly, 

THE COMMITTEE, 

Wm. H. jVIyers, Chairman. 



For References, we refer you to Mr. John W. Towt: 
Hon. George Dickey ; General Abram Merritt; Either of 
the Editors of the RocUand County Journal; the City and 
Count ry ; the Nyack Chronicle; or the Independent Ad- 
rertiser, of Nyack, N. Y., and Hon. H, C. VanYorst, of 
New York City, N. Y. 



I ^^fS 




Ltritltaiii 



LECTURE BEFORE THE NYACK ROWING ASSOCIATION 

ON MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 23d., 1885, BY 

REV. WxM. L. PENNY. 



This evening, ladies and gentlemen, it is mj^ purpose 
to speak of one of America's best beloved and most lament- 
ed heroes. It shall be my happy privilege to review the 
life and labors of one of whom it has been said, that "he 
was the most remarkable product of the remarkable pos- 
sibilities of American life." Our thoughts will naturally 
go back to that awful time when the nations fate hung as 
in a balance, as we touch, jjerhaps, some of those mo- 
mentous issues, long since settled, alas! only at the cost 
of many a precious life. I am to speak of one at whose 
call, in the dark and trying hour of the Nations peril, 
many of you, no doubt, in common with thousands of 
others of your fellow-countrymen throughout the land, 
laid aside the quiet and peaceful pursuit of your daily 
avocations, and buckling on the soldier's armor, marched 
forth to battle-fields; of one in whose exalted integrity 
and exemplary courage the people rejoiced, and at whose 
sad and melancholy death they mourned and wept. Th- 
life and labors of such a man cannot but be interesting t > 
us all. 

Abraham Lincoln has been called the most remarkable 
product of American civilization. To demonstrate the 
truth of this, contrast his early life and surroundings 
with those of other men who have acquired fame at home 



and abroad. With regard to these you will find^as a rule 
that their early training and surroundings were calculated 
to foster their natural bent and bring out their natural 
abilities. They had education, the best that could be 
given. Most of them had friends to guide them and 
suggest to them. Many of them had wealth, and a cer- 
tain amount of family prestige. And so their future 
greatness was to a certain extent shaped. But not so 
with Abraham Lincoln. In youth he was surrounded by 
none of those advantages that give promise of a great 
future. No venerable sage stood by him to point the 
road to fame. From the rude and lowly hut in Hardin 
bounty, Kentucky, where he was born in 1809, he had by 
his own efforts alone to work his way forward to that 
distinction that afterwards won for him the greatest glory 
with which the nation can crown a son. While he was 
still a mere boy his parents migrated to Indiana, locating 
in a wild district now known as Spencer County, and 
here he grew up. The story of his life up to his twenty - 
second year is the simple, touching story of trial, hard- 
ship, deprivations and wants. At different intervals he 
went to school, the aggregate of which was but one year. 
His first teacher we are told was a Catholic, for whom he 
ever after entertained a special regard. The only books 
he had command of were a life of Washington, and a 
copy each of Shakespeare and Burns. And these he- 
would read and study, by the light of the wood fire on 
the hearth, after his day's work was done. The biogra- 
phy of Washington deeply impressed him, and enkindled 
within him the noble ambition to do something worthy 
of a name. At twenty-two he entered the State of Illi- 
nois, determined to carve out his own way in the world. 
He is penniless, but has a powerful physique, an indomi- 
table will, and an buoyant spirit. He passes through 



the experiences of a clerk in a country store, a hand on a 
flat-boat, a student of law, a practical surveyor, a mer- 
chant on his own account, a member of the legislature, 
and finally stands an attorney admitted to the Bar. This 
latter was the goal he originally had in view, and to 
reach it dire necessity lead hira on through those various 
occupations. It was, indeed, uphill work, costing him 
many a meal and many a nights rest. But he was deter- 
mined to reach that plane; and no difficulty discouraged 
him, no obstacle appeared to him insurmountable. An 
ambition such as his springs not up in an hour or a day; 
but, its seed is sown early in life, it grows with the 
growth of that life, until, expanding into maturity, it 
accomplishes its purpose, or else, perhaps having failed, 
it droops and dies. No matter what the field, then, that 
engaged him, he must succeed. He entered politics — 
that dangerous sea whereon so many have suffered ship- 
wreck. Not, however, from choice, but because his 
friends persuaded him he could there do good for his 
locality, and perhaps for his country. In 1834 he was 
elected to the legislature and at the next election he was 
returned, and he served altogether four terms. Before 
this he had conceived very strong notions averse to 
slavery. When a flat-boat man he visited New Orleans, 
where he saw a poor slave cruelly whipped by his master. 
On a second visit to that city he witnessed the most 
brutal and revolting forms of that most iniquitous insti- 
tution. He saw the negroes driven in bands, chained to- 
gether like a pack of hounds, lest perhaps any of them 
should escape. He beheld the savage barbarity of selling 
human beings at auction. He saw a beautiful molatto 
girl felt over, pinched, and trotted around, to show the 
bidders, in the language of the "brute" who acted as 
auctioneer, that said article icas sound and healthy. Such 



6 

scenes told him of desecrated homes and broken hearts, 
and fairly sickened, he turned away exclaiming, "My 
(Tod, if I ever get a chance to hit that institution, I'll hit 
it hard." That noble resolve he never forgot. And so 
iu his second term as a legislator he began those anti- 
slavery measures which had their climax in his procla- 
mation of Emancipation. [Applause.] He drew up a 
solemn protest declaring slavery founded on injustice. 
His course was bold, and so his friends advised him. 
They warned him that pursuing such a course would 
jeopardize his popuhirity. But to him popularity, rest- 
ing beneath the shadow even of recreancy to what he 
conceived to be his duty, was something despicable, 
which his integrity could not countenance. Right and 
justice were eminently worthy of success, and his own 
personal advancement, desirable as it may be to him? 
must never be thought of at the sacrifice of those princi- 
ples. With those on his side he would face not one state 
alone, but even the whole United States. By no means 
the least, then, of his many acts that rebounded to his 
credit during his eight years of legislative service, wa- 
this protest declaring slavery wrong and unjust. 

That he was possessed of noble and comprehensive 
ideas; that his innate integrity led him naturally to 
espouse and advocate the right and just side of any ques- 
tion before him ; and that he had the strong will to pur- 
sue fearlessly and courageously the course to which he 
committed himself, soon became patent to all who ob- 
served his career. And such gratifications won for him 
a place in the affections of every honest heart. Even 
those opposed to him politically respected him as a man 
honestly convinced of the justice of his ov/n views. Dur- 
ing those years he made some speeches that seemed pos- 
sessed of much deep significance. In one, in particular, 



be appeared to have foreshadowed that great and terrible- 
event in which he himself figured so prominenth'. "No 
foreign invader," he declared, "can ever crush us as a 
nation; but if ever danger reaches us it oiust spring uj) 
among us. As a nation of freemen we must live through 
all time, or die by suicide." Part of those words have 
seen their fulhllment. The danger sprang up in the 
midst of us. As a nation we well-nigh committed 
suicide. But his was the strong arm that rescued and 
saved us, and under Providence, to him do we owe our 
uew lease of national life. His name shall be entwined 
with the name of Washington — the glorious names of the 
founder and jyTesewer of this grand Republic. [Applause.] 

HIS RETURN TO LAW PRACTICE. 

After four terms in the legislature he returned to the 
practice of law, which he had abandoned to serve the 
State. In that service he had been most devoted ; yet he 
was still too poor to hire for himself a room in a respect- 
able boarding-house; and so the little room he had for an 
office during the day must serve the purpose of a lodging 
at night. It was not long, however, before his legal 
reputation became widespread. The same honesty that 
characterized his whole career thus far became a 
most conspicuous feature of his professional life. The 
largest fee could not tempt him to defend a case unless 
convinced his client was in the right. Poverty might 
threaten him with humiliation and dejection, but his per- 
sonal honor and integrity must never be endangered, 
much less sacrificed. With hira the truth first and above 
all must stand out clear and alone; circumstances and 
surroundings would have only that weight left to them 
after his careful and searching scrutiny. Convinced by 
his own reasoning that his client was right, he would 



8 

])roceed with his case, otherwise no. And then, in the 
conduct of a case he was as assiduous and as painstakinor 
as he had been conscientous in discovering that he had 
the right side. If his judgement was not quick, it had 
that far better quality of being sure, and he was never 
known to alter his conclusions. It was the knowledge of 
this that perhaps gave him such great weight with both 
judge and jur}-, and won for him a place at the head of 
the Illinois Bar. As an evidence of his quick wit we 
have his conduct in the defence of a man charged with 
murder. Mr. Lincoln satisfied himself that his client 
was innocent. A witness against him had testified that 
he saw the prisoner commit the deed. It was in the night, 
but the bright moonlight revealed to him the terrible 
crime. In the hands of the prosecuting attorney this 
was made much of, and he aroused and just about won 
the jury, stating that even the very heavens bore testi- 
mony against the prisoner. Abraham Lincoln possessed 
himself of an almanac, and looked at it. Then he made 
a very touching appeal, won the jury to his own side, and 
freed his client by showing that on the night in question 
there icas no moon at all. 

In the politics of his day Lincoln made too great a 
mark to be left long to the quiet pursuit of his profession. 
He was pursuaded that his country needed his services, 
and now we find him a member of the XXXth Congress. 
His reputation as an able popular speaker preceeded him, 
and there was no little curiosity as to what impression 
this man from the l)ackwoods district, with no college 
education, would make in that august body. But by his 
earnest, honest, straight-forward manner, and by his bold, 
clear and logical speeches, he soon became acknowledged 
as second to none. When he spoke he always riveted the 
attention of the House. Robert C, Winthrop, himself 



9 

one of the brightest lights of that Congress, said of him, 
that "he showed more shrewdness and sagacity, and was 
possessed of more keen practical sense than any other man 
of his day or generation." Here he aimed another blow 
at slavery, introducing a bill for abolishing it in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, but with due compensation to the 
slave owners. Just and considerate as the measure was, 
he could not succeed in bringing it to a vote, as the 
friends of slavery were very largely in the majority. 

At the close of that Congress he again applied himself 
to his profession ; to which he now devoted himself for 
a period of about ten years. During this time he took 
part in those debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which 
have since become so famous. In his speeches in that 
oratorical contest he showed himself to be a profound 
student of the constitution of his country, and nowhere 
in the history of American oratory can be found a clearer, 
better or abler defence of the Declaration of Independence. 
The times were then rife with excitement. The old par- 
ties were about splitting up, and mainly, it was evident, 
on the question of slavery extension. 

TOLERATION OF SLAVERY. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, for the better under- 
standing of the great work of Abraham Lincoln's life, it 
is necessary that we should have an idea, at least, of the 
history of slavery extension. To speak of Lincoln with- 
. out referring to slavery would be to play Hamlet with 
Hamlet left out. Washington's great work was to throw 
off the shackles of British misrule; Lincoln's great work 
was to destroy the shackles of slavery. That monster 
threatened the life of our country. 

Slavery was brought over from the old colonial 
government, and the new free government was responsi- 



10 

ble, not for the origin, but for the toleration of that in- 
stitution. Going away back, as early as 1772 we find 
that the Virginia Assembly petitioned the British Govern- 
ment to stop the importation of slaves, but that govern- 
ment denied the petition. Nevertheless there was a mani- 
fest opposition to the system. In 1773 Patrick Henry 
said he believed the day would come when the "lament- 
able evil would be abolished." In 1774 Jefferson said 
that the abolition of slavery was "the greatest object and 
desire of the colonies;" and in October of that same year, 
a congress of the Colonies declared that they would 
neither import nor purchase any slave imported, after the 
1st of December next following." Washington too, put 
himself on record against slavery, saying that no living 
man wished its abolition more than he. This was all be- 
fore the Revolution. That event came, the colonies de- 
clared themselves "free and independent States." The 
first principle of their great manifesto, which we now- 
prize so highly, was that "all men were born free and 
equal." But yet slavery remained. The fathers of the 
Republic did not wish to drag this monster into their 
new situation as freemen, but they thought that circum- 
stances warranted their toleration of it for the time being. 
It was their hope that it would soon die out. In 1780 
Pennsylvania began the work of emancipation. Rhode 
Island and Connecticut soon followed in the same work, 
and nineteen years afterwards New York. Then by the 
ordinances of 1787 the great Northwest territory was se- 
cured forever from the invasion of slavery. It would 
seem, then, that the lamentable evil was disappearing, 
slowly perhaps, but yet surely. But in 1793 a new in- 
terest was awakened in slave labor. In that year Eli 
Whitney invented the cotton-gin. More rapid produc- 
tion of cotton became possible, and slave labor increased 



11 

in value. Manufacturing interests multiplied and for the 
present the North hesitated about interfering with slaver}^ 
Then with increased capital there grew up in the South 
a quasi aristocracy no less pretentions, no less arrogant, 
and no less domineering than the titled aristocracy of 
Europe. And out of that aristocracy there sprang, just 
as it did and still does in Europe, a bold unscrupulous, 
and determined political power that would stop at noth- 
ing in the prosecution of its designs. To protect and ex- 
tend slavery, utterly regardless of the wishes of their 
forefathers, and entirely heedless of the honest and earnest 
protests of their Northern fellow countrymen, was their 
chief aim and design. They chose their ablest men for 
their leaders, and devoted the best talent of their youth 
to the study of politics, in order to be able always to 
manipulate the government in the interest of their pet in- 
stitution. From 1790 down to 1836 they managed to se- 
cure eight new states in which to plant and extend 
slavery. Texas they said would give a "Gibraltar to 
slavery," and they added Texas. Then Missouri was ad- 
mitted as another slave State. They had control of the 
Government. And the situation was simply this: slave- 
holders ruled the country that claimed to be free ! In 
front of the National Capital might be seen a man with 
manacles on who began to sing "Hail Columbia, happy 
land." Oh, what irony! "The land of the free and the 
home of the brave" was joyously sung out, and the mock- 
ing echo answered back, "home of the slave.''' What the 
slaveholders said should be done, was done. They de- 
manded protection for the slave trade, and the slave trade 
was protected. They asked government sanction for the 
importation of Africans, and government sanction was 
granted. They wanted a three-fifths representation in 
congress for their slaves, and they obtained it. They re- 



12 

quested the North to return fugitive skives, who should 
take refuge within her borders, and the North swallowed 
her natural perjudices and returned the poor fugitive. 
They asked more territory, and they received more terri- 
tory. Observe how both Justice and Liberty were out- 
raged in this land. Who would have been surprised, if 
in those days Justice had torn the bandage from her eyes, 
thrown away her scales, and sought some other but bet- 
ter understood principle to represent? Who would have 
been surprised to see Liberty pull off her cap and wipe 
her tearful eyes with it, because she was constantly be- 
ing made a mockery of? But then Patience whispered to 
both, ^^Wait, the man is coming who will avenge the 
wrongs you suffer." 

This statistical narrative tells of slavery only as a com- 
mercial commodity. Look now at the individual slave's 
life. Its history is made up of the most heartrending 
tales. It has been said that slavery had its bright side. 
If so, that bright side was visible only in the spirit of 
resignation with which the poor slave bore his sad lot, 
not in the institution itself. That reflected no brightness. 
It has been said that some of the slave owners were very 
humane, and this lessened somewhat the sltive's burden 
of sorrow. Yet this, even if true, would not justify the 
system, any more than patient submission would justify 
a persons's unjust condemnation. Ireland's patient suf- 
fering for centuries by no means justifies England's un- 
just rule over her. Unhappy Poland's submission to dis- 
memberment does not justify the tyranny of Russia, 
Prussia and Austria. No more can we find in the appar 
ently happy disposition of some slaves a justification of that 
system that claimed the right of some men chaining oth- 
ers, and holding them as property, subject to bargain and 
sale, just as they regarded cattle. The system was un- 



13 

just, it was a foul blot, and no amount of sunshine 
thrown around it could make it appear bright. Whatev- 
er of contentment gleamed through the links of that 
chain, only showed it to be the greater wrong. Liberty 
is sweet, and the man is yet unborn who would not love 
it Why, even the animal, when you unloose his chain or 
open his cage, shows unmistakable signs of love of free- 
dom. Such is its instinct. And shall less be said of 
man, whom his Maker has endowed with reason, intelli- 
gence and understanding? If the collar, the chain and 
the cage bar will break the spirit of even the forest mon- 
arch, what must be to man that system that tells him 
that he is no better than an irrational creature, and that 
he too may be bought and sold and chained just as it is? 
And to this add the pitiful tales of broken hearts, of sa- 
cred family ties snapped assunder, of infants ruthlessly 
wrung from the arms of parents, of husbands and wives 
separated, of every sacred right trampled under foot, of 
every fair and bright hope cruelly crushed, of human 
souls, immortal souls, irabruted, and you have an idea of 
the hideous monster American slavery, to slay which was 
the great work of the Hector of our Nation. [Applause.] 
But with the slave-owners themselves, neither a sense of 
the injustice, nor all those sorrowful associations availed 
anything. In spite of the spirit of anti-slavery born 
with the Declaration of Independence itself — slavery still 
remained. 

B>it now the National sky showed signs of clearing, 
and freedom's air of growing purer. A fire shadow of 
justice appeared with the faintly out lined rainbow of 
mercy that began to rise on the vision of the slave. The 
foul blot that so long sullied our National emblem was 
about to be wiped out. The long-wished-for hour for 
the triumph of right began to dawn. The very term 



14 

'^slavery" was becoming obnoxious, and Wendell Phil- 
ips tells us how, instead of calling it by its proper 
name, American Slavery, its sympathizers were giving it 
all sorts of fancy names. It was being called the "pa- 
triarchal institution," the "domestic institution," the 
peculiar institution," the "economic subordination," the 
"impediment," and finally it was called a "ditferent type 
of industry." But new names could not hide its odi- 
ous form nor change its nature. A rose, you know 
called by another name smells just as sweet; and so slav- 
ery, no matter by what called, smelled, looked, and was, 
just as foul. 

And now the man, who in the clouded day of his own 
bitter want swore that "if he ever got a chance to hit 
that institution he would hit it hard," the frontier bred 
bank woodsman and rail splitter, the country lawyer who 
slept on a lounge in his office because he could not afford 
to hire a room, the man who returned from the urena of 
politics just as poor as when he entered it, the statesmen 
who educated himself in the best principals of the pro- 
fession, is called upon to come before the nation, that it 
might decide with its ballot whether he was not the one 
for whom Justice and Liberty had waited so long and 
patiently, and that man w^as Abraham Lincoln. [Ap- 
plause.] 

HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 

And now the scenes of his life change. We have 
scanned his trials and triumphs from the stand-point of 
a curious spectator, but now his trials become our trials, 
his triumphs our triumphs. Like a fitful day in summer, 
opening with sunshine, developing later a terrific storm, 
and closing with all the glory of a gorgeous sunset, so 
were the days of the nation's life at this time. The elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln was announced amid acclamations of 



15 

Joy from many (juarters; but almost imraecliately a 
mighty commotion was felt, clouds gathered thick and 
fast, and the rumblings of a coming storm were heard 
Lincoln had as yet made no definite announcement, but 
nevertheless his election was the preconcerted signal for 
an attempt at disrupting the Union. In the hour of 
Southern defeat at the polls the long pent-up animosities 
of the South against the North burst forth with such 
violence as to spread alarm and consternation on all sides. 
Plans were laid to thwart the will of the people. But des- 
pite all this, and despite the threats of assassination he 
proceeded to the National Capital to assume the reins of 
government. On his arrival he found treason and treach- 
ery prepared to defy him. Three fourths of the federal 
offices were in the hands of men disloyal to their oaths. 
lie knew not whom to trust. And besides this, he had 
the bitter mortification of learning that the public mind 
of Europe was poisoned against him. It was then an 
open secret that both Eugland and France looked with a 
favorable eye on the Southern cause. Aristocracy to be 
true to its nature did not approve the principle that all 
men were horn free and equal. Such were the circumstan- 
ces under which Mr. Lincoln proceeded to take the oath 
of ofllce. Around him stood the flower of Southern so- 
called nobility, with smiles on their lips and treason in 
their hearts, eager to le.irn what his policy would be. 
Beside him, holding his hat, it is said stood his old an- 
tagonist the little giant, Stephen A Douglass, showing 
himself a man capable of defeat. The inaugural is read 
and the oath "to preserve, defend and protect the L^'n- 
ion," is registered in heaven. And if ever an argument 
was mide to show the South the injustice of rebellion, it 
was that inaugural. With the force of invincible logic 
Mr. Lincoln cle.U'ly proved that secession was unreasona- 



16 

])le aud uocalled for. The South was earnestly pleadejl 
with not to precipitate their couimoa couatry into the 
horrors of a civil war. "latelligeuce, patriotism and a 
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land," he said, "are still competent to adjust in the best 
way, all our present difficulties." But with them argu- 
ment, reason, logic, and even merciful appeals to await 
the unlawful aggression that would warrant their resent- 
ment, were unavailing. Their answer was voiced in the 
thundering roar of their cannon opened on Fort Sumter. 
Lincoln had not yet commenced his official duties when 
the war was sprung on the country. Retiring from the 
stand where he took the oath, and before even the last 
echoes of his inaugural had yet died away, he looked 
out upon a field that seemed sown with opportunities for 
emulating an Alexandria or a Napoleon. But such was 
not his ambition. The brightness of military glory he 
justly appreciated, but he recoiled with horror from the 
thought of its attractive rainbow rising on streams of 
blood flowing from father against son, and brother 
against brother, marshalled in battle array. But the 
country was now in real danger. The issue must be 
squarely met. All reasonable means having failed, there 
remained only the alternative of answering the cannon's 
roar with the cannon's roar ; of returning shot for shot and 
shell for shell. He determined upon asking for volunteers 
to suppress the rebellion. He called for seventy-five thous- 
and volunteers. The night before he issued the call, 
Douglass at his own request, met him in conference. After 
listening to the President's words Douglass replied, 
"Mr. President, I am with you. The Union must be 
maintained. Instead of seventy-five thousand make it 
two hundred thousand. You don't know these men as 
well as I do." The proclamation went forth calling for 



17 

seventy-five thousand men, and poor Douglass returned 
to his home in the Northwest and fired the hearts of his 
followers with love for the Union, urging them forward 
in its defence, declaring that "a Democrat cannot be a 
true Democrat if he be not a loj'al patriot." [ Applause. | 
And he was heard when not long after he was seized 
with a mortal malady, in the delirium of his last mo- 
ments, muttering the words, "Union and patriotism." 
Thus was party spirit hiid aside and political differences 
forgotten in the one desire to save the country. 

No nations abroad, Mr. Lincoln said through his 
ministers: " This is our atfair — it is a family quarrel, and 
any interference between us means war with the United 
States." Thus giving them plainly to understand that 
the Union would assert and maintain her sovereignty ov- 
er her estate. This step, it is needless to say. was as 
bold as it was necessary. European sentiment favored 
the South. The English press voiced its joy over the 
rupture. "The great Republic is gone" it said; "De- 
mocracy is no more. Just what we expected. It was a 
rope of sand !" To remove erroneous impressions abroad, 
regarding the Union, and if possible to win everyone to 
his views, the President sent the late Hon.ThurlowWeed 
and Archbishop Hughes to Europe, ^Yeed to England, the 
Archbishop to France, Spain and Italy. The latter's was 
the most extraordinary mission ever given to a citi/.en of 
the Union; first, because its nature was known only to 
the President and himself, as he says in his letter, "neith- 
er the North nor the South knew my mission ; I alone 
knew it;" and second, because he was sent as no other 
man was ever sent, without any specific instructions. He 
had carte Uanclw to do whatever he thought best for the 
Union. And so it was that Lincoln proved himself an 
able statesman, working both at home and abroad. Glad 



18 

indeed must have been his heart as he saw the great up- 
rising throughout the North in response to his appeals. 
The marching forward of old and young, now singing, 
"We are coming, Father Abraham, six hundred thous- 
and strong," or again, to the tune of "John Brown's 
body lies a moulding in the grave." But at the same 
time there was a weight of sorrow on that noble heart, 
as all the dread horrors of civil war appeared before his 
vision. And here, ladies and gentlemen, the question 
forces itself upon my mind, could Lincoln have averted 
that awful calamity? No. Whatever he did he was 
forced to do. He loved his country too dearly to plunge 
her into such a strife. But a duty greater than devolved 
upon any President since Washington's day, r^ow rested 
upon him. He fully appreciated this, and never failed 
to ask assistance and light from on High. His fellow- 
citizens with trust and confidence placed in his hands the 
Government of our country. He knew what that trust 
meant and what that confidence demanded; and he had 
now become the sworn defender and preserver of the Un- 
ion. This was the first and greatest object of all his ef- 
forts. " My paramount object," he said, in a letter to 
Horace Greeley, " is to save the Union, and not either to 
save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union, with- 
out freeing any slave, I would do it. If I could save it 
by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could 
do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would 
also do that." Behold, then, my friends, the noble, pure- 
spirited patriot. Behold the man whose heart could 
bleed for the wrongs of others, and yet at the call of du- 
ty rise above his most cherished idea and lay on the al- 
tar of his country, as a sacrifice, the dream of his life, 
the humane purpose of liberating the slave ; not that he 
loved less, but that he loved his country more. He was 



19 

not rabid on slavery, as many imagined. He never in- 
tended in the beginning to liberate the slave at one 
stroke; but thoroughly convinced of the right and jus- 
tice of emancipation, he knew it must inevitably come. 
" This Government," he said, ''cannot endure perma- 
nently half-free and half slave." It was not he, however, 
who made the issue, it was the slaveholders. "In your 
hands," he said to them, and not in mine, are the mo- 
mentous issues of civil war. We are not enemies, but 
friends; we must not be enemies." But notwithstand- 
ing thi!5, the war was opened with all the fierce fury of 
inveterate hate. Bull Run com aences the terrible strife 
with forbodings of the direst sort. Shiloh becomes a 
charuel house filled with the groans of the wound- 
ed and the dying. Hundreds of brave men lie on the 
icy ground of Fort Donaldson, their blood staining the 
snow with crimson as their life-current ebbs away, and 
the cry of "on to Richmond" is hushed for the moment 
around the dismal camp fires of the Union, Lincoln 
feels that the war will not be over in a day, but presages 
a long and bloody conflict. Night and day he is at work, 
now consulting with officials, now consoling and cheer- 
ing the people. He is sorely troubled. "Oh how will- 
ingly" he was heard to exclaim, as he paced up and 
down the corrider of the White House, thinking he was 
alone with his own sad thoughts "oh how willingly 
would I give my place to night for the soldier's rest in 
tented field." But he was the head and must remain to 
direct and govern. New hopes, however, are born, as 
McClellan marches his grand army down the Peninsula, 
dashes across Antietam bridge, and drives Lee and his 
forces back over the Patomac. Along the Rappahan- 
nock shouts of triumph ascend once more from the Union 
camp. Victory follows victory, until at last Vicksburg 



20 

falls before the stubborn strength of Grant. Away up 
above the clouds, on Look-out Mountain the boys in 
blue plant the "Stars and Stripes," and sound their 
songs of joy, and fighting Joe Hooker's camp-fires gleam 
like jewels on the mountain's brow. Without firing a 
shot themselves, they mount Missionery Ridge, capture 
the guns and turn them on the retreating foe. Mead at 
Gettysburg strikes a blow that causes secession to reel; 
Sheridati whips Early in the Valley; Sherman marches to 
the sea, sweeping everything before him like wild-fire, 
and creeps along the coast toward Richmond. Lee is 
held in check, and the Napoleon of our array, Ulysses S. 
Grant [great applausejstrikes the Confederacy the final 
blow, and the rebellion is no more. [Applause.] 

Four years had elapsed since Mr. Lincoln, standing in 
the Capital on the eve of the war, said "We must not be 
enemies; though passion may have strained, it must not 
break our bond of affection. The mystic chords of mem- 
ory, stretching from every battle field and the patriot 
grave to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the L^nion, when 
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better an- 
gels of our nature."' How truly have these words been 
fulfilled. And his w\as the mind that directed all those 
stirring scenes. He studied the whole field, and his was 
the guiding spirit of every movement. With his charts 
and his maps before him he understood the exact worth 
to the Union of every operation, and in most cases fail- 
ure, where it occurred, was through disregarding his 
wishes and instructions. 

Now we have heard, ladies and gentlemen, that 
though desirous of seeing the slave endowed with liberty 
under our constitution, yet he would do no violence to 
reach that end. He would use moral suasion, he would 



21 

iqjpeal to reason, and to a sense of justice. He would 
have emancipation come "gentle as the dews of heaven.'' 
But Providence ordained otherwise, and hence during 
the progress of that terrible civil strife he was constrained 
by circumstances to fulfill the threat he made on the 
slave marl of Xew Orleans. During the war he had 
been urged again and again to hurl the thunderbolt of 
emancipation into the enemy's camp, regardless of the 
consequences to the Union. But he studied to do his 
duty as God gave him to see that duty. When, then, 
the proper hour came, his proclamation was ready, and 
with that one blow he struck from nearly four millions 
of human beings the galling chains of slavery; and this 
was the crowning of his life. [Applause. | 

Thus he brought the nation through the trying or- 
deal of civil war. Thus he guided the ship of state se- 
curely through the most turbulent storm that ever assailed 
her, and thus he made his country in reality, what she 
was before only in name, a free country — free in the true 
sense and meaning of that word. 

WHAT MADE LINCOLN WHAT HE WAS. 

Passing over in respectful silence the sad and mel- 
ancholy circumstances of his death, let us now ask what 
made Lincoln what he w'as? To be brief, I answer, first 
his great love of truth and justice; this was the main 
spring of all his acts; second, his intergrity, honest in ev- 
erything from first to last. Well did he deserve to be 
called "Honest Abe;" third his resolution, or determi- 
nate will. When once he knew he was in the right, 
nothing could deter him from pursuing that right; 
fourth his intense love of country. "Oh how hard it is 
to die and leave one's country no better than if one had 
lived,'* he was heard to say very early in life. Lastly his 
unbounded charity — charitable even to a fault, ever will- 



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